Army Capt. Will Swenson fought alongside a Marine sergeant in a fierce, deadly battle in Afghanistan in which they repeatedly braved enemy fire to try to save fellow troops.

The Marine got the Medal of Honor, but Swenson has nothing to show for his actions. Army officials say he was put in for the valor award but the paperwork got lost.

In his new book, Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer tells what went wrong — with the battle and with the Army that failed its captain.

See the exclusive story in this week’s Army Times.

Where is your new PT test?

The long-awaited new fitness test for soldiers was originally scheduled to go out to the force by Oct. 1.

But delays at Training and Doctrine Command will mean the test won’t be ready by then, and maybe not for months.

The service’s top enlisted soldier has said the proposed new test may be too easy and suggested a much tougher version.

Find out the latest in Army Times.

Charges dropped against sergeant in war zone shooting

Sgt. 1st Class Walter Taylor was accused of negligent homicide and dereliction of duty in the death of a female Afghan doctor. Taylor, who was badly wounded in a later attack and faces many surgeries, has been going through a living hell.

Now the charges have been dismissed, and a report finds the charge of negligence against him was unfounded.

Taylor talked to Army Times about his road back from despair. See the story in this week’s issue.

2 Comments

Surely, it was a snafu in the paperwork that will be corrected in regards to the Medal of Honor. Someone did not dot the lower case j or something. One underlying issue that is not talked about much is awards based on rank and rank alone. An example is the Bronze Star which is “given” away to certain higher ranks for doing duty behind a desk whereas the award is denied because a soldier of a certain rank certainly can not merit earning such an award.

Soldiers and Marines do not get overtime pay for staying up days doing the duty they chose to do unlike some of our civilian counterparts. The rewards that we get are in the sense of accomplishment and knowing that we did our job well. Most of this is internal. The military is also recognized by being awarding these medals that reflect the labor, intellect and guts that our military makes on a daily basis. I chose my words wisely as I write this and stand by my original assertion sometimes awards are based on rank.
and not labor, intellect and quick thinking in combat and guts. Clearly the Captain deserves the same honor, and I hope he gets the honor deserved him.

I have never done anything close that would ever merit the MOH, not even close. I would hate to thing that the command has in some way politicized these high awards based on popularity contests within a command structure.

Good men and women who volunteered to serve this great nation of ours deserve what they earn. They do not get any overtime time or moonlighting pay for duty. These medals are a way of the American people to say Thank you to the soldiers and Marines that have earned them.

( when I say Soldier and Marine, I mean everyone on the military, not to be exclusive by the way).

Dakota Meyer show us, in part, why he deserves the MOH when he champions the cause of Captain Will Swenson. His concern at the time of the firefight was for his fellow service members and now for another who was “to his right or to his left.” Heroes never do it for glory = most, including this man, do not see themselves as heroes but as having done their duty. HE DID HIS DUTY TO HIS VERY BEST.